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A wise man once said: “It’s hard to believe our luck has gotten this bad.” Michael Moore’s latest documentary, “Fahrenheit 11/9” reflects that perspective. Moore has gone to great lengths to show us where we are, and inspire us into action.

Going? Prepare for an engaging barrage of juxtaposed offerings. Expect entertainment, sorrow and the minor delights of vindication. Divorce yourself from the need for clarity. You’ll be glad you did.

A man-made river rises and falls from the hose of a commercial water truck parked outside and close to high, forbidding mansion gates. Moore, cast as People’s Champion, sprays the pollution-saturated water of Flint, Michigan onto Gov. Rick Snyder’s lawn. 

The film has an endearing cameo from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, N.Y. Democratic congressional candidate, and hope-infused footage of the Parkland School Activists. 

There is an unsettling montage of our nation’s leader inappropriately touching his daughter Ivanka. Viewers are invited to squirm. This is our president.

The provocative footage of Hitler speaking with Trump’s voice overlaid, while not an idea original to Moore, in this context, it is a potent tool.

If this  all seems a bit disjointed, welcome to Fahrenheit 11/9. Moore decided a straight-up attack on the current president was either too easy or too predictable, and he skips through the seemingly random lenses of causes, solutions, and patterns.

The film comes across as more than three films. You might yearn for the continuity of two hours on the Flint Water Crisis. Or pine for uninterrupted scenes and quotes from the White House: a full blooper reel, complete with all-too-easy dissections. Or even a straight-up Autocrat Report, examining history, comparing now to then. When you see the film’s true gem: The last remaining prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials crying at the harm done by separating those immigrant families. There is a full movie in that. 

No such luck. Moore gave up on attempting to make sense of our current zeitgeist in this film. It is possible that there was just too much to cover. Maybe the film is an honest reflection of the madness we now see as “normal.”

For whatever reasons, this documentary is no easy representational painting.

“Fahrenheit 11/9 is a collage. No single image dominates, yet collectively, the component parts point to something. In that, the movie is a success. 

We’ve been at a crossroads of stupefying sorrow since November of 2016. But here’s the thing: While we stand here saddened, the ground beneath us shifts. Whether by earthquake-inducing fracking on our public soil, or by the deep moral erosion caused by separating families in our name, blindingly fast change is sweeping us all up.

 

“Fahrenheit 11/9” is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton, N.Y.

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